For a limited time only.

I've been going through old files on this here PC (Apple, here I come...) and found my family history among them...

So here's where I find the source of my pride and passion...

"...This brings us to Isabel’s father Juan David Generoso, born in 1888 to Francisco Aguila Generoso and Maxima Hernandez Enriquez, the eighth of nine siblings-- namely: Nicanor, Jose, Encarnacion, Rosario, Isabel, Anastacia, Vicente, Juan David, and Maximo Francisco. Rosario and Isabel, said to have been fair-haired and blue-eyed, died in infancy, as did the first-born, Nicanor. Another much-loved sibling, Vicente, was a strapping adolescent when he was struck down by cholera during the waning years of the 19^th century as the epidemic circled the globe and decimated a big chunk of the world’s population.

The Generoso clan almost did not come to be, had fate not interfered to change the course of the life of young Maxima Enriquez. In 1873, she was a 16-year-old Bauan beauty who was engaged to a Spanish mestizo, a staid ex-seminarian named Mariano. Mariano’s claim to fame lay mainly in being the ravishing Maxima’s beau, and having once been teacher and friend to one of the Philippines’ national heroes, Apolinario Mabini. At the time, Francisco Generoso was a student at the Ateneo School of Law and scion of the Manila-based Generosos who owned vast tracts of land in Bauan. One summer, Francisco visited the sleepy Batangas town. Galloping through town on horseback, he cut a dashing figure, quickly earning a reputation as the “Tibok ng Bayan". He inevitably caught the eye of the charming young Mayor’s daughter. Sparks flew. Romance bloomed. After a whirlwind courtship and elopement, Kapitan Agustin Enriquez, Mayor of Bauan, and his wife Juliana Hernandez had no choice but to shell out 900 pesos in gold pieces to the offended ex fiancé, Mariano, as danos y perjuicios or settlement for a breach of promise. Maxima and Francisco enjoyed a long and happy marriage, founding what is now known as the Generoso Clan of Bauan, Batangas. His bachelor days over, Francisco settled down and became one of the town’s upstanding citizens. He later earned the distinction of being named the first judge of the municipality.

The Generosos on Francisco’s branch of the family were solid land-owning gentry who hardly ever worked in their lives, selling off pieces of land to support their lifestyle. The Enriquezes on Maxima’s side of the family had a more colorful, and offbeat, history. Family lore has it that today’s Generosos are directly descended from the renowned botanist and writer, the Spanish friar Manuel Blanco. The Agustinian priest is well known for his book,” Flora y Fauna de Filipinas.” A visit to the San Agustin Church in Intramuros bears out the fact that Padre Blanco was indeed assigned to the town of Bauan, Batangas sometime in the early 19^th century. Piecing together scraps of circumstantial evidence, some members of the family are convinced that during his stay in Bauan, Padre Blanco conducted an illicit, outside-the-mosquito-net liaison with a dusky Indio who happened to be Maxima’s grandmother. It is whispered about that the good priest fathered two boys, Kapitan Agustin Enriquez and Padre Braulio Enriquez. Maxima’s uncle, Padre Braulio, was one of the first Filipino-born priests of the Agustinian order, an unlikely appointment were it not for his supposed “connection” to Padre Blanco. Padre Braulio was also said to have owned vast landholdings in Rosario, Batangas, and was so irked by Maxima’s elopement with Francisco Generoso, that he promptly disinherited his only niece. During the early days of their marriage, this was no great cause for concern because Francisco’s side of the family owned practically all of Barrio Tabok.

But hard times did come. By the eve of the century, the Americans came to colonize the country and the Great Cholera Epidemic was rampaging through the countryside. Francisco and Maxima decided to mortgage their lands and come to live in Manila following the death of their beloved son Vicente, who had fallen victim to the scourge. It was because of these somewhat reduced financial circumstances that Juan David enrolled at the University of the Philippines to study, not engineering which he had wanted to pursue, but veterinary medicine, which offered a scholarship. Needless to say, the young David excelled in this field. After graduation he became a well-paid government bureaucrat, rising to the post of Acting Director of the Bureau of Animal Industry. No less than Malacanang Palace, the office of the President of the Philippines, honored him with a plaque of appreciation because of a vaccine David had developed to eradicate a disease that threatened the cattle industry of the country. David is also named in the international society of scientists for this distinction. At the peak of his career, David decided to buy back the mortgaged lands and restore them to his family. It was also David who encouraged his youngest brother Maximo Francisco Generoso to pursue his dream to study engineering in the United States.

Isabel remembers Maximo, or Tio Imo, as a droll young man, said to be the spitting image of James West, the popular hero of the TV series, Wild, Wild West. Tio Imo was fond of regaling his young nephews and nieces with funny stories that had them all rocking with laughter. He was, says Isabel, “very handsome and very strong.” In today’s parlance, he would be a “hunk”. Isabel recalls how she and her siblings loved to swing on Tio Imo’s outstretched arms, two on each arm, while he swung them up and down.

If Tio Imo was a hunk, older brother Kakang Jose (Jose Generoso. lolo of Rene and Chito Generoso, is remembered by the family as a true blue barako. He was, say the aunts, cast in the Generoso mold of honor and principle. While a student at the Colegio de Letran in Manila, it happened that one of the Spanish priests insulted the national hero Jose Rizal. Kakang Jose considered this both a national and personal affront and accosted the priest with a “laseta”. As a result, Kakang Jose was expelled from the college, a punishment he accepted with quiet dignity.

The Generoso women, Encarnacion (Tia Ancion) and Anastacia (Umpi), are remembered by Isabel for their great love for gardening. Both women had meticulously cared-for flowering and decorative plants, as well as vegetables. Tia Ancion, in particular, loved animals, specially cats and dogs.

Juan David, the veterinarian, shared his sisters’ passion for plants, tending his roses and bougainvilleas with tender loving care and scientific precision. This common interest in things botanical has been interpreted by some as a trait that could have been inherited from the distinguished botanist himself, Padre Blanco.

Juan David Generoso and his siblings grew to maturity at the close of the old century and the dawn of a new one, from the late 1880s to the early 1900s. This period saw the belle epoch of European history, while, on the other side of the globe, the Philippines witnessed the rise of nationalist movements leading to the revolution of 1898. Freedom was short-lived, as the country came into the hands of the new colonizer, the United States.

This historical backdrop serves to reveal the era in which Juan David Generoso lived and the political movements and intellectual developments that shaped his mind.

And an extraordinary mind it was. Premised on four centuries of Spanish colonial rule, the advent of the Americans, and the early stirrings of Filipino nationalism, his intellectual identity pulled in three directions. His ideas were shaped both by the old and the new world. And his speech was a reflection of this cross-cultural identity; he was, effectively, tri-lingual, fluent in Spanish, English and his native Tagalog.

Though on the one hand methodical and scientific, Juan David also had a passion for literature and the arts. Juan David was, in a sense, a Renaissance man. He loved books and classical music. He enjoyed opera music and strummed his banduria on many a languid tropical eve.

On the lighter side, Juan David was not immune to a friendly game of mahjong. He was also an avid chess player, patiently instructing his children on strategy and tactics. But only Auntie Remy and the boys eventually mastered chess. The other girls did manage to learn mahjong, and to this day this game is an integral part of many a Generoso gathering.

Juan David was also an early enthusiast for movies. Tio Herky, for example, was named Herculano after Lolo had particularly enjoyed the movie “Hercules”. Youngest son Tio Bill is named after the actor William Powell. And were it not for the intercession of the older daughters who feared the wrath of the heavens and the good sisters in their convent school, the youngest daughter would now answer to Myrna (after Juan David’s favorite actress Myrna Loy). Instead she was named Erlinda Adoracion, to the delight of the nuns. Isabel’s recollections bring it all back. She remembers how, as kids, she and her siblings would gather round their father’s lap when he came home to Bauan on week-ends after a week’s work in Manila and listen to stories of the many movies he had seen on lonely week-day nights away from his family. His favorite was movies about the Count of Monte Kristo which he retold with relish to his captive audience. While in Manila, Juan David boarded with the YMCA which was conveniently located next to a movie theater. Later, when his older children finished high school, he would buy a home on Union Street in Paco and move his family to Manila so that they could attend college in the big city.

Juan David was also well known to be a highly principled man. During the Second World War, he deliberately shunned the opportunity to make a pile of money through profiteering.

Juan David was not a churchgoer. He believed, like the philosopher Erasmus, that religion is worship from the heart”. His was a mind that questioned dogma and doctrine and the rigid structures of the church. Despite this, he was not intolerant. Consciously or unconsciously, his views reflected those of the existentialists of the mid-20th century. Religion, he thought, was a matter of choice, and he respected the choices of others.

Many of the grandchildren and great grandchildren have the name “Juan” or “David” attached to their name. The kids may not realize it, but this is evidence of the high esteem the patriarch is held in by his offspring.

In his early twenties, Juan David married Aurora Umali Brual. Aurora, the daughter of prosperous merchants Justino Brual and Catalina Umali, was a noted “belle” of Bauan. The “Umali” in Aurora’s name has, of late, given rise to many speculations as to origin. The current scuttlebutt, far-fetched but still within the realm of possibility, is that “Umali” is a corruption of the Irish “O’Malley.” On a trip to Ireland, Auntie Remy Generoso learned that a certain Irish pirate queen named “O’Malley” led several forays into Asia and the Pacific islands. It is speculated that her pirate ship may have berthed somewhere in the Batangas region. This piece of apocrypha has led to many hilarious debates within the family. Unfortunately, the town of Bauan was razed to the ground by fleeing Japanese soldiers at the close of World War II, so any sort of documentation to prove, or disprove, this contention has literally vanished into thin air.

Aurora and Juan David had 11 children, two of whom – Florence and Pedro, died in infancy. Nine others grew to maturity, each one a colorful personality in his own right. These are: Isabel (married Dr. Benjamin Atienza Catillo), Consorcia (married Antonio Buendia), Petronio, now deceased (married Socorro Cabrera, Remedios, Herculano, now deceased (married Margarita Dimayuga), Jose, now deceased (married Heidi Azarcon, Rosario (married Miguel Carmona, Erlinda (married Antonio Carandang) and William (married Susan de Guzman)...."

Cool, no?